Growth couples temporal and spatial fluctuations of tissue properties during morphogenesis

Area of Science:

• Developmental Biology
• Biophysics
• Plant Science

Background:

• Living tissues exhibit spatiotemporal fluctuations in properties, potentially aiding in state and size sensing.
• Theoretical models predict long-range correlations in growth fluctuations within developing tissues.

Purpose of the Study:

• To elaborate on theoretical predictions of long-range correlations in tissue growth fluctuations.
• To introduce a minimal model for persistent quantity fluctuations and investigate growth's effect on these variations.
• To experimentally validate these predictions using plant growth data and analyze genotype-specific differences.

Main Methods:

• Developed a minimal theoretical model for fluctuations with temporal persistence.
• Introduced the concept of 'fluctuation stretching' to describe growth-induced coupling of temporal and spatial fluctuations.
• Analyzed Arabidopsis sepal growth data using a cellular Fourier transform to quantify spatiotemporal fluctuations.

Main Results:

• Confirmed that long-range correlations are a generic property of persistent fluctuations.
• Demonstrated that tissue growth couples temporal and spatial fluctuations via 'fluctuation stretching'.
• Observed long-range correlations in Arabidopsis sepal growth, with distinct patterns in mutants affecting mechanical stress response.

Conclusions:

• Growth imposes kinematic constraints on spatiotemporal fluctuations, unifying diverse experimental data.
• The findings provide insights into the robustness of morphogenesis by understanding fluctuation dynamics.
• This work bridges theoretical predictions and experimental observations of tissue fluctuations during growth.